PgmNr D1285: Comparison of mate choice in Drosophila melanogaster exposed to a mutagen.

Authors:
Y. Trujillo Varela 1 ; P. Ramos-Morales 1 ; SM. Villagrán 2 ; AJJ. Espinosa 3 ; C. Macías 4


Institutes
1) Laboratorio de Genética y Toxicología Ambiental Facultad de Ciencias UNAM; 2) Departamento de Biología Comparada, Facultad de Ciencias UNAM; 3) Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, UNAM; 4) Instituto de Ecología, UNAM. CdMx 04510, México.


Keyword: courtship and mating

Abstract:

Organisms are continually exposed to a wide variety of substances which can be harmful and may put at risk the integrity of organisms and the health of future generations. Even sublethal concentrations can alter competitive, fundamental skills for reproduction and transmission of genetic material to subsequent generations. In this work, we use Drosophila melanogaster to determine whether exposure to the mutagen Sodium Azide modifies the possibility that males could be chosen as breeding pair, comparing male performance in massive and individual crosses. Wild type (Canton –S), third instar larvae, were fed semichronically with sodium azide (SA) [0.125- 1.13E-13], a mutagen that induces repair by recombination in Drosophila melanogaster (Gonzalez-Ramos, 1997). For the rest of the assays we used SA [3.86 E -6] because this concentration does not affect the survival of the adults. For all matings, ywf homozygous untreated females were crossed with wild-type treated males mixed with mutant no treated males for any combination of the y w f markers (X-linked). A massive crossing with a ratio of operating sexes (OSP) 1:1 was performed. Two days later, females were placed individually in vials to produce progeny. The type of the progeny obtained was used as an indicator of how many couples have the parental female and the male phenotype chosen by the female. Females take part in three matings (average). It was found that the wild-type phenotype predominates in the offspring of treated and untreated males, although it is possible that the same kind of male participates in more than one copula. The experiment was repeated but now only one male of each kind of mutant marker and the treated wild-type male were put with 8 ywf females.  On these matings, the female take part in two copulas and when exposed males were used, mutant progeny was more abundant than the wild-type. Acknowledgments: To Master in Biological Sciences, UNAM-CONACyT (Grant 262619) and to Drosophila Stock Center Mexico, UNAM to provide the biological material.